In what was touted as a “major floor speech” on the eve of the Rio+20 United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development, Kerry urged Congress to fight the “insidious conspiracy of silence on climate change — a silence that empowers misinformation and mythology to grow where science and truth should prevail.”

“Thomas Paine actually described today’s situation very well,” Kerry said. “As America fought for its independence, he said: ‘It is an affront to treat falsehood with complaisance.’ Yet when it comes to the challenge of climate change, the falsehood of today’s naysayers is only matched by the complacency of our political system.”

Saying that the danger posed by global warming “could not be more real,” the senator charged that in the U.S. “a calculated campaign of disinformation has steadily beaten back the consensus momentum for action on climate change and replaced it with timidity by proponents in the face of millions of dollars of phony, contrived ‘talking points,’ illogical and wholly unscientific propositions and a general scorn for the truth wrapped in false threats about job loss and taxes.”

“Climate change is one of two or three of the most serious threats our country now faces, if not the most serious, and the silence that has enveloped a once robust debate is staggering for its irresponsibility,” Kerry said.

“All you need to do is look out your window. …For the first time in memory, the Augusta National azaleas bloomed and wilted before the first golfers teed off at this year’s Masters.”

“Frankly, those who look for any excuse to continue challenging the science have a fundamental responsibility that they have never fulfilled: Prove us wrong or stand down,” Kerry added. “…And by the way—good luck in the effort!”

Here is the nearly 55-minute video:

Bridget Johnson is a veteran journalist whose news articles and opinion columns have run in dozens of news outlets across the globe. Bridget first came to Washington to be online editor at The Hill, where she wrote The World from The Hill column on foreign policy. Previously she was an opinion writer and editorial board member at the Rocky Mountain News and nation/world news columnist at the Los Angeles Daily News.
She is an NPR contributor and has contributed to USA Today, The Wall Street Journal, National Review Online, Politico and more, and has myriad television and radio credits as a commentator. Bridget is Washington Editor for PJ Media.

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1.
Matthew

And summer hasn’t shown up here yet. His point?

I have yet to see an AGW alarmist being able to point to a prediction that actually came true.

Weren’t we supposed to have no snow in 2012 or somesuch (prediction from 5-6 years ago)? How’s that working out?

“I have yet to see an AGW alarmist being able to point to a prediction that actually came true.”

The Goracle has said on many occasions “This is exactly what the scientists have predicted” – of course it didn’t matter that he was referring to a hurricane or drought or snow storm when he said it – or that scientists actually hadn’t predicted what The Goracle was referring to.

Kind of like having your cake and eating it too – and it would appear The Goracle has had his share.

I have an even better idea. Following the scientific method and eschewing Soviet style social manipulations, prove your your own assertions concerning climate change, global warming, climate chaos, etc. or stop considering them as political red meat.

What an evil sick man Kerry is. Would somebody please investigate how much money he and his billionaire wife have invested in “alternative energy” scams? How is it that we are even still talking about this pseudo-scientific leftist power grab. The people who continue to push this fraud should be in jail. The scientists who have taken public money to concoct evidence should be brought up on charges, PERIOD.

That’s all you have to do – follow the money. You can probably bet that any rich liberal who touts AGW has a lot of money invested in green, renewable energy (hear that, Mr. Al “inconvenient liar” Gore?).

Exactly !
Anecdotes are not evidence, whether they be flowers blooming out of season, or unwed single mothers without healthcare, or disingenuous lawschool students who would claim outrage over 3000 bucks/year for undeliverable “contraceptive rights” at a Catholic U whose insurance policies they even studied (and accepted) prior to attendance, to …. You name it, NewLeftProgs are quite the sophists when it comes to accusing others of their own most conspicuous crime, namely sloppy thinking. — Oh, lest we forget: Correlation is proof of causation … to them. Really?! LOL! Time they all got “swift-boated”!

Can a master prevaricator (“My Swift Boat Experience”) be trusted with the truth in any venue? Especially when orating about a subject he has no knowledge of, wasn’t a specialty in college, and isn’t an actual work experience?

OK! Now We The People understand. Just like his “Swift Boat” imagineering, his orating about another subject, born from his “fertile mind,” is just pure poppy-cock! Whew, We The People were worried there for awhile. He’s not to be taken seriously…OK!

And there are a bunch more where this august orator stems from…blowhards, all!Amen.

He doesn’t have to heat his house in the winter, either! He’s rich enough to pile on the long underwear and fur vests. Live like a Viking.

Oh, but this was precious:

“All you need to do is look out your window. …For the first time in memory, the Augusta National azaleas bloomed and wilted before the first golfers teed off at this year’s Masters.”

HAHAHAHA! We can see global warming with our very eyes? Hoo-boy, if global warming is so bad that it’s killing vegetation, how come the grain supply hasn’t dried up? How come I see fresh fruits and veggies in the market? Why hasn’t every florist gone out of business?

Seriously! According to our own recorded history during the medieval warming period there was prosperity, wealth and bounty. The lands were filled with milk and honey. Greenland was green and prospered and England grew grapes for wine. It was when the little ice age happened that famines, desease and death occured.

Way to go Kerry! You’ve shown your ignorance once again. Just how do you prove a negative? On the other hand, how about you prove your claim, i.e., that extraordinary climate change is occurring, and that it can only ameliorated by drastic changes in our lifestyle. While you’re at it, please explain how efforts we might make to clean the air would have a significant impact on the foul crap that China, India and others are spewing into the environment. Is there some magical device that keeps our air just above us, and keeps their crappy air out?

I agree with a previous comment. Why not do some real research, using established scientific methods, open to peer review, and come up with the impartial results. I. too, would like to know just how much money he and his heiress wife have made off the green economy that he and Al Gore are doing their best to create.

Even if the original data hadn’t been conveniently “lost”, it’s worthless based on the complete lack of consistency in the methods used to gather it. None of the so called “proxies” cover a statistically significant portion of the globe, nor of the 4.5B year history of the planet. Modern measurements absolutely do not cover an adequate time frame to be significant.

Nothing about their technique has been held constant, not the number of stations, not their isolation from confounding effects like heat island, not the way their equipped, not the way the technicians read the equipment, not the way the data is archived. . . nothing except the “answer”.

And that “answer” is the same today for “global warming” (which even their guro Phil Jones says hasn’t happened for 15 years) is the same as the “answer” for “global cooling” in the ’70′s: Transfer power to the UN and money to the third world while denuding the west of industry.

Sorry,
I know we’re on the same side here, but this issue more than any other chaps me royally.

The biggest environmental problem in this country is whatever it is that is in the drinking water in New England. How anyone could believe, let alone vote for such a complete fool has got to be the result of altered brain chemistry.

“Frankly, those who look for any excuse to continue challenging the science have a fundamental responsibility that they have never fulfilled: Prove us wrong or stand down,”

Sorry, Senator Munster, that’s not how it works. The burden of proof lies with the person making the assertion. So how about you 1) demonstrate a climate model that actually makes an accurate prediction and 2) openly share your work and data so that others can review it. That’s how science works. If you’re unable or unwilling to do that then you’re the moron that needs to stand down.

Besides, a negative can’t be proven and disciples of your church have repeatedly shown they won’t listen to reason. Your challenge is a rigged game.

Isn’t it odd how “climate model” programs that have been written specifically to “show” CO2 driving a warmer climate “show” CO2 driving a warmer climate?

The “models” begin by assuming what they seek to prove, then are used to claim it’s true. When reality doesn’t match up with the models, then they declare reality to be wrong and edit the measured data.

Actually,if their climate models were reliable they would be able to replicate the earth’s climatic history.
They can’t and they don’t.
If you cannot replicate the climatic history of the earth – even though you “know” the answer – how can anyone presume that these same models can predict the climate 50 to 100 years hence.
Further, since when is science decided in the political arena?
Answer: when the “science” is bogus.
Real scientists embrace the scientific method; not the methods of political coercion.

If we are going to be subjected to these asserrtions, then we should have source code access to all the climate models that ‘prove’ calamity. Intellectual property held that tightly to the vest (because of competition for funding) is the real problem here. Climate models should be subject to peerr review…by actual software engineers.

His tour in Vietnam was very brief. He volunteered for swift boat duty because it was considered safe and out of the line of fire, and then the policy changed and swift boats were to be used on more risky missions.

His three purple hearts were for minor wounds, one shrapnel in the butt.

He’s a coward and a fraud, first, last and always.

Are self-righteous a-holes like Gore and Kerry trying to compensate for lifelong pompous ass-holery ?

According to Wikipedia, Gore spent less than 5 months in Vietnam as a journalist with an engineering brigade stationed out of Ben Hoa. I doubt if he ventured out into the field much. I was with the 11ACR and I assume that we were the ones providing protection for his engineering Roam Plows for a couple of months while they cleared vegetation from the roadways in the remote areas. Didn’t notice too much engineer brass with us. Probably leading from behind, and Gore sitting behind a typewriter providing all the news.

I assert “climate change” is a neo-Marxist conspiracy by the political class to control the (somewhat) free peoples of the world for their own pocket-picking, self-aggrandizing benefit. John Ketchup Kerry, prove ME wrong or STFU.

Someone show Sen. Kerry a recent chart that shows no temperature change since 1998, but steadily increasing CO2 emissions. If that is not enough to prove him wrong, then he should read the first and second caches of the e-mails between the thugs passing themselves off as climate scientists. There may be global warming (especially since the 1700s) but anthropogenic global warming is all Mann-made.

“Frankly, those who look for any excuse to continue challenging the science have a fundamental responsibility that they have never fulfilled: Prove us wrong or stand down,” Kerry added. “…And by the way—good luck in the effort!”

hmmm. This quote implies that, in the realm of “climate science”, the null hypothesis is now that man-made global warming exists, rather than it must be proved to exist. This is scientific perversion and is something that I’ve seen before. It is another example of trying to control the debate. Someone like Inhofe should call him on it.

The scientific method is to form a hypothesis, and then use properly-gathered and processed data to prove or disprove it. Subject to peer review of the raw data, as well.

So far, your side has changed your story three times just since I was in high school; from “a New Ice Age” to “Global Warming” and now “Climate Chaos”. Each time demanding the same solution; world government in a pre-industrial agrarian collective state. With you and yours as the rulers, and the rest of us as the peasants.

We now know your side has consistently falsified your data, rigged your experiments, refused to submit your raw data for inspection, and deliberately suppressed data from your own mining that refutes your position. We don’t have to “prove you wrong”; your own results prove that you are lying through your teeth, and have been for over three decades.

You also refuse to allow the use of the most efficient non-carbon-producing energy sources we have, nuclear and hydroelectric power. Only Holy Wind and Holy Sun will satisfy you; I suspect because either you are too ignorant of physics to understand their limitations, or because you are counting on them to cause an energy-scarcity situation that will create your dreamed-of Paleolithic Socialist “Utopia” by default.

You have failed on every count, and it’s time to admit that you have been running a scam on the rest of society for thirty-plus years in the hope of seizing unlimited power. And then using it, as usual, to reward yourselves and punish everyone else.

The game is up. We’re on to the scam.

It’s time for you to fold your tent and steal away into the night like the political Williamson* you are.

Alternatively, I invite you politely to… go to Hell.

Sincerely,

eon

(*The “Williamson family” was a rather infamous gang of traveling con artists, hucksters, and grifters who moved back and forth across the United States for over three-quarters of a century;

True. Somehow the great state of MA keeps generating these creeps. Barney Frank, John Kerry, Ted Kennedy (RIP), Markey (of “Taxman”-Markey fame). Now a newly “recognized” Cherokee wants in on the racket (didn’t know Cherokees were from Massachusetts). So, what do we do? First, get Kerry OUT and keep Warren OUT. Barney’s already going. Good! Then, keep Scott Brown IN ! Finally, the really tough one: Get all of the liberal colleges and U’s OUT. Like, defund them! No more taxpayer subsidies. Maybe in downsizing they’ll remember to start (and finish) with teaching things that are true and make sense! They should be quite busy, and maybe will become profitable again, some distant day! On their own dime!

The proof of the theory lies with how deep does the vein of guilt go, to be mined and pocketed by the elite? Is there no bottom to the wealth of delusion excavated by the prodding of the preachy? Should the victims of this scam unite around a party of Neo-Guiltism?

When it comes to knowing the difference between unfounded or unsupported expert opinion and evidence, that is proof of matters of fact, John Kerry is down right stupid. He graduated from a 3d rank law school and has no trial experience insofar as I know.

Global warming caused by man induced CO2 emissions is a theory. The burden of proof is upon those advancing the theory through hypotheses supported by scientific experimentation involving empirical data. Anthropogenic global warming caused by CO2 emissions remains unproven.

The so called proof is by computer models that involve several hypothetical (guesses) assumptions about facets of climate that are not understood or in some cases not even known. The output of climate models are at best hypothetical scenarios and in are in no sense predictive. The best that can be said about climate model scenarios is that they are educated guesses that lack supporting empirical data. This information is not admissible as evidence in a trial nor is it scientific evidence proving the global warming theory.

The theory and supporting hypotheses concerning man caused global warming are unproven. John Kerry and like minded people are promoting a scam.

The problem is that global warming was proven wrong years ago (necessitating the move to “global climate change’). Even with that change, real scientists continue to raise reasonable questions about the “proofs” of climate change and, most importantly, about whether human beings are the cause thereof. None of this seems to impinge upon Kerry’s (and I use the term in it’s most generous application here) consciousness. He’s just grandstanding.

Kerry received a B.A. in political science from Yale and a J.D. from Boston College. His scientific credentials, like those of Al Gore, Robert Kennedy, Prince Charles, Barbara Streisand, Robert Redford, Sean Penn, Ed Asner, Alec Baldwin, the discredited climate scientists living off government grants and the rest of “us” (as in “prove ‘us’ wrong or stand down) are nonexistent and/or disproven. The fact that useful idiots with no scientific training believe that their comments are relevant because they are lawyers who have been trained to argue either side of any position is damning. In addition to reducing the size and scope of the Federal bureaucracy, America would be well served to reduce the number of lawyers employed and to begin to replace them with people who have not spent their entire working lives at the public trough!

Yeah – And this year the Brits are still huddling for warmth with the Summer Olympics due to start in a matter of weeks. According to them they haven’t had a warm summer is years, so they are now a little cool on the whole global warming thing.

This whole global warming nonsense was debunked years ago and with the western world in a recession this greedy, evil, little toad of a man wants to levy more tax on us.

News to the west – you’re countries are clean. If you are so hot over global warming then go after the country with the yellow air (cough-china-cough) or shut your pie holes.

How about this, when his carbon footprint and standard of living is equal to or less than the average American’s, then maybe I will listen to what he has to say. John Kerry, prove that your “solutions” are not going to destroy our way of life and dramatically alter the average American’s standard of living, or stand down.

I can’t believe I was dumb enough to vote for that asshat back when I was so smart that I knew everything. I was 100% incontrovertibly positive that global warming was the greatest threat to existence. It was so much easier being in the cool kids club. I assure you, if my brain had been scanned back then, my beliefs would have lit up in the religious faith part of the brain.

Don’t feel bad. When I was barely of pre-voting age, I thought “gun control” was a good idea. (Of course, I come from a family of hardcore FDR “New Deal” Democrats, too.)

I got that silly idea out of my head after comparing the relative rates of per capita violent crime in areas like Central Ohio (where the only gun laws were the Federal ones) and, right in the middle of same, metropolitan Columbus, where the laws- and the murder rate- weren’t all that different from New York City or Washington, D.C.

Data trumps theory every time.

We live and learn. And as my mother used to say, “A man (or woman) who never made a mistake, never made anything.”

I thoroughly agree with senator Kerry on one point. The American voters must decide on a host of energy related policy issues in this election, or face horrific consequences. We are flat out of time. I yield to his knowledge of the flowers at the Masters. But I disagree with him vehemently on one central issue: If the USA severely cuts back on carbon combustion, to the degree that he, and others, advocate, then our standard of living will plummet. Our technical superiority in military matters will vanish. If the world severely cuts back on carbon combustion, billions will die. There are no feasible alternative energy technologies for base loaded supply.

I have forgotten more about energy than Senator Kerry ever knew. I engineered a score of nukes, two score of fossil fueled power plants, and spent decades assessing advanced technologies. The existential issue of national survival is never discussed by the bright green future types. Why? They are calling for a level of sacrifice, and central control that Americans have never experienced. Why is this not a matter of national debate?

I am, like Senator Kerry, ignorant of the post doctoral science of climate change, although I have read deeply on the subject. I have a list of more than 70 world class scientists, in the field, who state that there is NO significant danger to humanity from his activities related to carbon combustion.

Senator Kerry wants us to commit national suicide, on issues of which he is technically ignorant. His speech comes as thousands gather, again, this time in Rio, to demand that the US give its wealth away in reparations for our past environmental sins. That any US Senator endorses this loopy thinking does not speak well of him, or the people who voted him into office. Yet they and we, must decide a matter of national life or death.

For the sake of my grandchildren, I say drill, dig, burn and radiate. And quit spending their life’s earnings on worthless technologies. Our basic problem is too much hot air in the Capitol Building, and too many hogs standing in the government trough.

Is there any truth to the rumors that Mr Kerry is joining Prince Charles in presenting the final chapter in “Green” Technological Innovations of Tomorrow to prove the salience of Global Warming once-and-for-all.

The long anticipated “final solution” will ineluctably be rolled out to Agog at the Bog acclaims following the introduction of SOYLENT GREEN.

This initiative would immediately reduce the carbon footprints, make Obamacare cost conscious, eliminate rationing as an inconvenience, create actual green jobs, trim the welfare rolls, secure a ready new source of voters, finally make social security solvent, provide a new energy supply, and ensure a nutritionous supplement that would supplant the egregious Big Gulp.

Whether or not global warming is occuring is just a tiny fraction of the debate. What is causing it? What, if anything can be done to solve the problem? Do we even want to solve the problem since it may actually be beneficial? The most important aspect of the debate is weighing the costs and benefits of proposed solutions. Are the solutions going to cause more harm to humanity than the problem and are we going to surrender our sovereignty and rights in the face of this (possibly fabricated) crisis? The issue is much more complex than a feel good “Save the Polar Bears” bumper sticker.

Just an added tidbit that is slightly related to this topic, I recently learned that the crying indian dude in the save the earth commercials was really Italian-American. Maybe Elizabeth Warren should look into that. Her high cheekbones may be an indication that she too has Italian-American ancestry and perhap’s Obama’s beak like nose. Just sayin’.

Actually, I must admit to not having watched the video; nor do I intend to.
His quoted statement to “…prove us wrong or stand down…” suffices to discredit the whole shebang from the outset. Someone among his “entourage” ought to remind him of this, the 1st corollary to “Ockham’s razor”: ‘That which may be asserted without evidence can be dismissed without evidence’. So, it’s HIS burden of proof. He really would do well to remember that before he wastes his (and anybody else’) time with more long winded speeches.

The memories of the poor azallieas dying at Agusta national are ,seared ,seared in his memorie.Just like the Christmas night he didn’t,t spend in Cambodia when Nixon wasn’t,t president yet,because it was still LBJ ,and never happend anyway. This guy is such a phoney. Thank,s Massachusetts for electing this Bozo,and embarrasising,the rest of US.and what the hell is that dead raccoon doing on his head. I thought Crokett was from Texas,Reedem yourselves, and get rid of this guy.

Gus, naw, Davy was from Tennessee –he just died in Texas. Everything else looks right tho. Except maybe the raccoon –i think it’s a Shitzyu. Been dead for awhile –maybe he ought to stuff it. Or at least cover it up with that magic hat the CIA guys gave him, that Christmas night on the secret mission to Cambodia.

Buddy, maby it,s more like a persian cat, a big grey one with propellers on it,s paws. They were selling guided bear hunts,here in Wyo the other day. But I didn’t,t buy one, don,t really want to kill a bear ,. But I might if I was only three. We have good representatives here. Nothing to be ashamed of, unlike Mass.or even Mont. ND Col. Or even UT. I guess we’re the last place to be invaded by the Californians.exept ND they don,t have any excuses, just liberal Norwegen blood.Reguardless we,re all doomed.

Gus, yeah, ok, i guess it could be a dead Persian cat. You know a dead cat will smell pretty gamey right quick in DC in the summertime. Maybe that’s why no one on the planet Earth can stand the guy.

I used to work the rigs up your way –worked my way thru school, running north from Austin to Gillette and betweens to Miles City, Montana, whenever i’d flunk out or go broke cramming four years into six, back in the late 60s & early 70s. It was still the wild west back then –Miles City especially. The local cowboys would come in off the ranches Saturday night and drink on the other side of the bar from the out-of-towner roughnecks from the rigs, and long about drunk-thirty in the morning someone would start up a good old bar fight like on TV. Come to find out it was usually the dentist’s daughter dancing with the rig hands that would get it going –and the next week her daddy would have about 20 new customers, and she’d show up next Saturday night in a brand new blue dress to set off that strawberry blonde hair & big blue eyes.

Hey Lurch, prove your doctored/misplaced/misinterpreted data has led you to a valid THEORY or stfu. Climate has been changing for approx. 4.3 billion years. Best we learn how to adapt to Mother Nature’s whims than to try and change her mind.

I read voraciously and I can find no insidence of the Climate Crowd offering up a venue/forum/opportunity of any kind for a discussion. Quite the contrary, they have avoided all forms of requests, confrontations, offers what have you as they recede ever deeper into their cave screaming “Deniers, you are all Deniers, Only we hold the truth, Only we have the answers, WE have our precious, yes it is our precious, precious, You cannot have it or see it, my precious, our precious, precious”.

So the only thing that prevented thousands of people from killing themselves after listening to Lurch drone on for 50 minutes was that this was delivered on the Senate floor to an audience of 0 people.

It is suddenly 96 degrees here today, after an relatively cool June. Whether or not the near-record-breaking heat shows anything about global warming, it does make it damned clear that no one wants to cut down on the air-conditioning, whether the plants creating the electricity churn out CO2 or not, and of course they are. Whether or not we should give up our air-conditioning, we simply won’t, and neither would Kerry.

This is part of a very odd development. Not new, but the Warmunists have brought it to a head. That development is people who, by their very words, reveal that they have no scientific education, no scientific credentials, and not a shred of an understanding of how science works and how it is different from, say, politics or hucksterism, but still feel qualified to hector us all about scientific fact (or the “scientific consensus” or such fancies). Karl Marx made the same mistake; he tried to bolster his credibility by insisting that his fantasies were actually scientific and therefore irrefutable.

Now in Kerry’s case, we now know that some pretty peculiar beliefs have been “seard – SEARD” into his memory. That, we also know, hardly makes them true.

the great thing about these speeches is that in ten years time hell be spoon fed his words from his grand kid (does he have one?) whos has grown up and isnt as stupid as grandpa… And theres not much wiggle room in a speech like that if doom doesnt come soon.
Seriously whats he gonna do in two three years time.
Oh i know.. conveniently forget- after all, who is keeping score??.. No one :-0 ,moving on..
Thats how it alwalys is in the media and everywhere. zero justice.

Climate change…what idiot thinks this is a “crisis” and what bigger idiot thinks we can do a damn thing about it? The climate has been changing since there has been an atmosphere. That’s billions of years folks long before humans were around to affect anything. Next the climate is affected by this thing in the sky called the “The Sun”, Earth’s orbit & axial tilt, deep ocean currents, volcanic emissions, and a host of other things that humans can in no way affect.

Climate change happens, just like fecal matter, and when it happens some areas become more desirable/habitable/agriculturally productive and other areas become less so. So populations migrate to the more desirable areas from the less desirable areas, its happened enough in recorded history that we shouldn’t be surprised.

Too many inherantly stupid (and unproductive) people are living these days in the industrialized nations.

The caption is: “Okay, got it, after I use your promise to avoid the USSR to stop the Contra funding, you go ahead and fly to Moscow and take that half billion bucks from Leonid, and I’ll let the plumbers loose on Poindexter –we ought to have a Reagan-ruining scandal ready for the WaPo and NBC WAY before the midterm elections. Meanwhile the Harkins would like to know if they can see you naked.”